The Emerald Virus

by Patrick Shea

  Sam said, “Thank you Mr. Mason, Ben and I will appreciate anything you can do to help us. Is there anything I can do to help you?”

  “You’ve already done all you can for me. The fact that you’re taking Ben with you means the world to me. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe Ben needs any looking after. He is as capable as any young man I know, but the fact that he’s going to be with someone like you does me good. You see, I did some checking around about you yesterday and I liked everything I heard. I think the two of you are going to be a good team.”

  “I’m planning on it. I did some checking on Ben also and I’m impressed with him. In fact my only concern is how independent he is. I’m so used to running the ranch my way that I’m afraid I’m going to offend Ben.”

  Ben spoke up for the first time and said, “Ms. Klein, you don’t have to worry about that. Pop is pretty authoritative and he and I get along fine. When I don’t agree with him I’ll tell him and we talk through it. I’d like to do that with you as well. But I do plan on following your lead. You have more experience than I do and if Pop has proven one thing to me over and over it’s that experience does matter.”

  “Ben, that sounds good to me. We can talk through anything at all. One thing my father taught me was that if I couldn’t explain the why of something it probably didn’t have too much value.

  “By the way, you have to start calling me Sam now.”

  Ben looked a little chagrined and said, “I’ll be happy to do that but I have to tell you something first. I’m planning on bringing my dog with me, and his name is Sam also. He’s a seven year old border collie and you’ll like him, except maybe for the name.”

  Sam laughed and said, “I don’t see that as a problem, but if you don’t mind could we maybe call him Sammy or something like that, just to avoid confusion?”

  Ben looked relieved and said, “Yeah, we can call him Sammy, I do that half the time anyway. I’m glad you aren’t offended by the name. People can be funny and I worried about that last night.”

  Wiley spoke up and said, “Sam, have you given any thought to when you would like to leave?”

  Sam felt like she had been punched with reality and she looked at Wiley and said, “Mr. Mason I have two people to put to rest before I can leave. I think now maybe I have three. I don’t quite know how to ask this but can you tell me your plans?”

  “I wanted Ben to leave before the end. I thought I’d fix my bedroom up as comfortable as I could and I would spend the end by myself thinking about the people I’ve loved in this life. I don’t know what else to do. Ben hasn’t agreed with me on that though.”

  Ben said, “Pop, you know I can’t leave you alone at the end. I don’t think I could live with myself if I just walked away and left you.”

  Sam said, “Mr. Mason, I don’t want to be forward but why don’t you and Ben consider coming to our ranch for the last couple of days. I would be honored to have you, and Ben and I will be able to put you and my Dad and Ned to rest before we leave. You don’t need to answer me now, the offer is an open offer so just call and tell me if you want to come.”

  Ben said, “Pop, let’s do that. I won’t leave you here alone, and I think spending our last days with these folks will help us both.”

  Wiley said, “Sam, I think Ben is right. We don’t need to think about it. It’s a generous offer and we appreciate it. I think I’ll spend a couple of days visiting some folks here in town and if it’s okay with you we’ll come to the ranch on Monday. But first you’ll have to agree to stop calling me Mr. Mason, and secondly maybe you should check with your Dad first. If he would rather not have other folks around, Ben and I will understand.”

  “Wiley, please don’t worry about my Dad. He told me this morning that if things worked out I should extend the offer to you. He thought Ben and I could use the time to get to know each other a little better, and to do some more planning. So now that we all agree on that I’m going to get on home. I’ll look forward to seeing the two of you Monday morning. If something changes Ben has my cell number.”

  Chapter Eighteen: Fun in the Sun

  Saturday: Near Boston, Massachusetts

  Karl Schumann lived just north of Boston. He had been having a ball since the virus panic had started. He had often dreamed about a world without law enforcement and lo and behold he was now living in one. Although to be fair he had to admit there were still some police out and about, but they were rare in today’s world. He had spent the last ten days doing whatever he wanted to do. Eating, drinking, looking for women, breaking into stores just for the sake of breaking things, stealing what he wanted, and then leaving the stolen goods on the street, and anything else he felt like doing. He was armed and he didn’t care about anything except having a good time.

  Karl had been released from the Massachusetts State Prison at Concord just four months ago. He had been doing seven to ten years for a second offense of grand theft auto. He had served four years in the same facility in the early nineties.

  Karl had been caught in a stolen car during a routine check by a traffic policeman who thought Karl had looked funny. Karl still shook his head about that. Some rookie cop had run his plates for no apparent reason.

  Karl knew now he would have been better off simply pulling over when the flashing lights came on, but he had panicked and tried to outrun the cruiser. The rookie was probably still getting off on that. He had chased Karl through Boston for about five minutes, until Karl had driven the car into a bridge abutment. By then there were multiple cruisers involved in the chase. You would have thought he had tried to assassinate some big shot, the way they had treated him.

  They had thrown the book at him. Even his slimy lawyer couldn’t help him on this one. The one good thing was that Karl had never admitted that he was acting as lookout and driver for a jewelry store heist at the time. He had protected the crime and the identities of the two other men, who had heard the sirens and cancelled the robbery before it started.

  For his silence the two men had helped set him up with a new life when he was released. Well, Karl thought, not exactly a new life. But at least he had a new identity in the form of a Massachusetts driver’s license, a workable social security number, and two thousand dollars. He thought they could have done better, they thought it was generous. But he wasn’t complaining. They could have blown him off.

  Karl wasn’t sure how much value the license and card were since he wasn’t planning on going to work anytime soon, but as things turned out the new name became priceless.

  Karl was now officially a survivor. He had shown up at the city hall of his small town and they had not questioned his standing as a survivor. He had presented his driver’s license and they had looked without suspicion at a man showing no signs of the virus and he had been presented with a brand new RV. He never knew if they had conducted a background check on his new name, but he was sure it would have come up clean had they done so.

  He couldn’t believe his luck. After spending a lifetime hoping for a break, he had just received the biggest break of all. They had even made sure he was armed of all things. He had to laugh about that every time he felt the weight of the 9mm handgun stuck in his belt.

  He didn’t even mind telling them where he was headed. He had often dreamed of a home in the Florida sun and he was now going to cash in on that dream. In fact, he was now a wealthy man. He could own any house he chose, any car he wanted, anything he wanted, and anywhere he wanted. He also knew he could have any woman he wanted. Well, maybe not any woman, but he knew there was a type of woman out there that couldn’t resist men like him. Strong men willing to take anything they wanted without regard to rules.

  During daydreams like these Karl often forgot things like the fact that he was a two time loser, had spent a good portion of his life in juvie halls and prisons, and had rarely been able to attract any woman who wasn’t at or near the bottom of the ladder. His dates were often drug addicts and prostitutes who would date anyone, because even m
en like Karl were a step up for them.

  He also forgot the Aids thing. He was HIV positive. He was bitter about this and blamed the system for his condition. He was perfectly healthy when he entered prison, but many of the inmates were not. The prison system didn’t provide rubbers for the inmates to wear, nor did it spend any resources making sure prisoners weren’t violated. Not that Karl needed protection. He had played both sides of the fence since he found out in juvie hall that he could sell sexual favors.

  Karl was now driving a new RV with a huge sign taped to both sides that read “Good Luck Survivor”. The people that gave him the RV started to take the signs down but he had told them to leave them up. He liked advertising his luck as a survivor. It was the only good luck he had ever encountered. They had looked at him kind of funny when he told them to leave the signs alone and one old busy body had suggested it might be dangerous to leave the signs up. Karl had told them to mind their own business and that he could take care of himself.

  They had also suggested that he park in some nearby remote area, like a camping ground at a state park or such. He told them he would do that, but knew he was headed for Florida as soon as he could.

  He was now on I-95 entering New Jersey. He thought if he were to run into trouble anywhere it would be while driving through New York City, but he had been surprised. A lot of people had honked at him, some had waved and some had waved only their middle fingers, but no one had bothered him. He was amazed at the number of cars abandoned along the highway. Some were stranded with the hood up, others had obviously been involved in wrecks and there were two or three burned out shells. In the last of these he saw what he thought were burned bodies in the front seat.

  He had seen smoke in the distance a number of times during his drive but he didn’t know what it was. Now, looking to the east he could see a huge fire burning out of control. It looked like the entire port of Bayonne was on fire and as the wind shifted he found himself driving through heavy smoke. Karl had to slow down in order to see and he drove through thick smoke for some miles. He had not seen a single fire truck, although the fire was not yet to the freeway. He wondered how long a fire like that would burn if left alone. Right now if looked like the entire metro area could burn to the ground, and this was a huge metro area.

  Karl smiled when he realized that it just didn’t matter to him. The people that were still alive would not be for long, and none of this would have the slightest impact on him. He wouldn’t even have to listen to the disaster stories on the evening news.

  As he left Bayonne behind him he settled into a comfortable speed of eighty MPH. Traffic wasn’t too bad and eighty seemed to be the right speed. He drove in the left lane and didn’t plan on changing lanes unless he had to.

  Just as he was feeling really good about the trip four or five cars blew by him like he was standing still. They were all laying on their horns as they went by and they must have been doing 150 or more. He had never seen cars driving like that. Two or three of them were sports cars but a couple looked like full sized cars. He didn’t know what kind of cars could drive that fast. As they passed him the cars moved back into the left lane and were out of sight in less than thirty seconds.

  Karl’s heart was still racing. The noise of the cars and of the horns had scared him pretty badly, and now he was getting angry. Those fools could have killed him just when life was looking grand.

  He told himself to settle down. This might not be the only time this happened so he would have to pay more attention to his mirrors. He wasn’t planning on being killed during the trip to Florida. Those idiots would be dead soon enough, and if they kept this up it would be real soon.

  A little later he was lost in his thoughts and realized he was about to run over a small car driving in the left lane. The car must have been doing only fifty or so and Karl had to brake hard to avoid hitting him. This really pissed him off and the more he thought about it the angrier he became. He wasn’t used to driving a vehicle this size, with no back window or side windows, and no easy way to tell if it was safe to change lanes. That guy up there was endangering his life and didn’t seem to care. Karl watched the right side mirror for a minute and started to change lanes. As he moved to the right he heard a car horn blasting angrily away and he jerked the wheel back to left. As he swerved back and forth trying to control the RV and trailer a large sedan driving fast passed him still blowing its horn. It must have been driving so fast he didn’t see it coming when he checked the mirrors.

  He got the RV under control but now he was really mad. The back seat of the car ahead of him was packed full and Karl couldn’t see if there was a passenger in the front seat but that didn’t matter to him. As the RV picked up speed again he closed on the small car. He didn’t want to hurt the RV but he was too angry to worry too much about it. Besides, he knew he could get another RV if this one was seriously damaged. With that thought he smiled as he drove into the car in front of him. The small car jumped ahead a couple of feet and then started to slow down; Karl hit the car again, a little harder this time. The car jumped again and swerved back and forth as the driver fought for control. As the driver brought the car under control the car moved into the right lane, but Karl wasn’t going to let him off that easy. He followed the car into the right lane and then bumped the car again.

  This time the driver moved onto the shoulder and slammed on the brakes. Karl passed the car and laid on the horn as he did so. He laughed as he thought about the other driver. He wished he could have seen the expression on his face as he went by. The asshole deserved to be scared.

  A couple of minutes later Karl was back in his own world driving in the left lane when he noticed a large truck moving closer to him, but in the right lane. As the truck came alongside the driver blew his horn a couple times. Karl looked at him and saw the trucker holding a microphone in his right hand and waving it at Karl. He then held up his index finger, retracted it and held it up again, all the while nodding his head at Karl. His face was a bright red, his nose and eyes were running and in general he looked like hell.

  Suddenly the realization of what he was doing hit Karl. The guy was telling him to turn on his CB radio and put it on channel 11. The channel the people earlier today had told him was going to be used by survivors. Karl looked at the trucker and nodded yes to him. He then looked down and figured out which one was the CB radio and turned it on. The indicator light came on and the display showed 11. Karl picked up the mike and said, “Hello, hello.”

  A voice immediately came back and said, “Hey asshole, you could have killed the driver in that car back there, what in the hell are you doing.”

  Karl was shocked that the trucker seemed to be mad at him and he said, “He shouldn’t have been driving like that, he could have caused an accident.”

  “What in the blazes are you talking about, all you had to do was change lanes and pass him. Just because you’re a survivor doesn’t mean you have any more rights than the rest of us. You pull something like that again and you won’t be a survivor for long.”

  Karl couldn’t believe it. Someone was talking to him like that? Now he was really pissed. He keyed the mike again and said, “Hey asshole, I’ll do what I want and there ain’t anything you can do about it. Now piss off and go somewhere dark and die.”

  Karl looked over at the driver but the truck was slowing slightly and he could no longer see the driver. As he watched, the driver slowed until the front wheels of the big rig were even with the rear wheels of the RV Then the truck turned hard to his left, slamming into the right rear of Karl’s RV

  Karl was stunned. He couldn’t imagine someone trying to kill him just like that. But there wasn’t anything he could do. He was still driving about eighty MPH when the back end of the RV left the pavement and entered the median. Karl hit the brakes and tried to steer but he was out of control. The RV was sliding down the median now, towards the small drainage ditch in the middle. When Karl hit the ditch the RV simply flipped onto its left side and bum
ped and slid to a stop. Karl wasn’t wearing a seat belt and ended up flat against the inside of the windshield, unconscious. The last thing he heard above the tearing noise as the side of the RV was demolished was an air horn being blasted as the truck continued on.

  Karl didn’t know how long he had been out, but he didn’t think it had been too long. His head hurt and he had a large knot on the right side of his forehead. The skin had been broken and as he touched the knot and looked at his hand he saw blood. Karl tried to move and felt a sharp pain in his right side. If felt like someone had kicked him in the side and maybe broken a rib or two. Both of his arms seemed to be okay and his left leg moved when he wanted it to.

  His right side was on the large dashboard, pressed up against the windshield on the driver’s side of the RV, the side that was lying down in the ditch, and his head was down in the corner. He wouldn’t know about his right leg until he could move. He had to get out of this position just so he could breathe normally. He used his right leg to push away from the windshield and he twisted and collapsed onto the steering column.

  He screamed when his side twisted with the movement. But at least now he could use the dashboard to push himself back so that he was kneeling on the right side of the driver’s seat. From there he stepped onto the wreckage behind the driver’s seat.

  He paused here and caught his breath, and then climbed on the seats, to the passenger side door. He opened the door and crawled out onto the right side of the wreck. He collapsed onto his back with his legs still in the vehicle. He wondered why no one had stopped to help, or at least to see if he needed help. He then wondered if anyone had called for help.